On Thursday we published a press
release about
Microsoft changing its license terms for Xbox One.

Faced with user protests, Microsoft has been forced to make the terms
for its latest Xbox gaming console look a little less
restrictive. However, the “new”
terms which had caused such outrage were not in fact new at all: they
were similar to most other proprietary software licences, including
those covering other Microsoft software products and on-line services.

Restrictions on selling, sharing and gift-giving appear, for example,
in the Windows 7 and Office 2013 licences. Similar restrictions will
continue to apply to the Xbox one in that "downloaded titles cannot
be shared or resold". Geographic
restrictions can also apply to Office 2013, along a class action
waiver. Gamers who were angered by the invasive, inadequate and
mandatory 24 hour check-in and Kinect voice/motion sensor may be
similarly angered by the clause demanding “you must comply with any
technical limitations in the software that only allow you to use it in
certain ways. You may not work around any technical limitations in the
software” in the Windows
7
licence.

While proprietary licenses restrict your freedom, Free Software always
guarantees that you can use the software for any purpose, to study how
it works, to share it with others, and modify it to your needs. Nobody
should not have to beg for these rights!